I'm probably 100% wrong but I always thought it was because it was assumed that stone cold was at the end of his career so it would have been more of a "who was a better icon match" and neither wanted to lose. And it was assumed that the rock still had years in him so if he went against the rock it would have been more of a "Passing the torch" match. Of course The Rock left for Hollywood but I don't think that was predicted by anyone that he would leave to be a full time actor.

But like I said I'm probably wrong since i don't know about anything that happens backstage.

Austins old school that have reserved feelings towards Hogan
and Hogan old school as well ,but it was Austin refusing to
to do anything with Hogan probably something to do with wcw
Bishoff,Jarrett,and such.

Steve Austin facing Scott Hall was a joke, that match shouldn't of happened. Austin deserved a more high profile match then that. Austin should of won the 2002 Royal Rumble and went on to beat Chris Jericho for the Undisputed Title.

Oh my god newcastle people have such bad reputation in India . Vikram remembers when newcastle man ATTACK horse after game because he angry and drunk now I read daily mail today and see fight and violence in newcastle and one picture shows man wanting to fight horse. I don't know Newcastle apart from football team but they get reputation of animal attacker here

It should've been the biggest finale to the biggest era. My understanding is that neither would do the job. But Hogan accepts doing it against The Rock, a smaller star. When I watched that PPV, it felt wrong from the minute Austin faced Hall earlier on the card. The only thing that would've compared would've been Austin/Goldberg.

Um, As SCSA would most likely say himself, What?
Yup, the most over wrestler in wrestling at the time who got paid a record hollywood debut acting check for a spinoff featuring a character that was featured in a blockbuster the year before was surely a "smaller" star. This "smaller star" had record saturday night live ratings in early 2000 and a top 40 hit with a huge hip hop star in the same year. This "smaller star" was about to star in a huge movie that would go on to break the APril 2002 monthly opening weekend record, and this star was already receiving the biggest mainstream treatment outside of wrestling since the legend he was facing.

Can you Austin fans just stop it? Why can't ya'll just except that the Rock was as big as Austin in his own way, even when there's overwhelming amounts of evidence provided EVERY SINGLE TIME SOMEONE BRING IT UP. Quit the myths.

97-Summer 99 - All Austin, Summer-99 - Fall 99 till Austin left Rock was garnering bigger reactions (don't believe me I'll post the links there's more than enough evidence of this it's just ignored by Austin fans. Here's one: Search "night after no mercy 99 on youtube. See who gets more support, even Lawler has to mention it) 99-2000; All Rock obviously until Austin comes back and is missed by Fans therefore garnering "slightly" bigger pops in late 2000. 2000-2001 before invasion Era - Both. 2001-2003 - It's clear that the WWE is prepping Rock to take over as the face of the company. Austin walks out cause he doesn't job to people. Vince is lucky he has another "number one guy" in the rock. Cena walks out on the company, the wwe right now is ****ED, ,PERIOD. Austin and Rock are 1a and 1b for their overall respective times in their ERA.

In regard to the question:
I've read that Austin and Hogan didn't respect each other, and I read that it was already gonna be Rock vs Hogan. I don't think we'll ever truly know.

What I do know is that while yea i guess people try to "overplay" the rock's stardom, but IMO more people downplay. It's baffling to me and it doesn't make any sense.

Does anyone care to explain why this happens?
I'm serious btw, i would like for someone to answer this question in a non-bias manner too. Cause as a longtime pro wrestling fan it really doesn't make any sense at all.